Why Do Some Fertility Treatments Fail?

To begin with, it is important to understand that fertility treatments very often are not successful. More than 40% of couples who undergo fertility treatments will not go on to have a baby. To understand why this is, it is important to know the specific reasons that some fertility treatments fail.

The biggest factors in whether or not a fertility treatment fails is the nature and severity of your condition. If you are having fertility problems because of an extremely small uterus, for example, most fertility treatments will not make much of a difference. Even surgical options don’t always produce success in this case. On the other hand, if you have a slight hormonal imbalance, hormone shots will often do the trick.

The next most important factor in whether or not some fertility treatments fail is your age. Statistically speaking, becoming pregnant becomes more and more difficult for each year beyond the age of 29 that you age. Around 10% of women in their twenties, for example, report difficulties with fertility. Women in their thirties, in contrast, have problems about 25% of the time. This number raises to 50% for women over 40. If you are over 40, even fertility treatments often will not succeed. This is not to say that it is impossible, only that you have a higher chance of failure.

Another reason that some fertility treatments fail is because of misdiagnosis. While this does not necessarily happen very often, it is possible that your health care provider has not correctly identified what it is that is causing your fertility problems. Or, it may be that you have more than one problem with fertility. If blood tests show that you have a hormone imbalance, for example, your health care provider may treat that hormone imbalance. However, you could still have a blocked fallopian tube, which would mean that even after your hormone imbalance is taken care of you would still have difficulty with conception. Identifying the cause (or multiple causes) of infertility is a key component of treating infertility problems successfully.